McGraw-Hill Connect is an e-learning platform offered by McGraw-Hill Education. Features include course and assignment creation, grading, learning aides, e-books, and student portals.
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Alta from Knewton, a Wiley brand
Score 8.0 out of 10
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Alta is Knewton’s product for higher education. Alta is a courseware solution that combines Knewton’s adaptive learning technology with content, and is designed to deliver a personalized learning experience that is affordable, accessible and improves student outcomes. Knewton is a Wiley brand (acquired 2019).
Content is pretty good, and site is good as standalone tool, but it does not integrate will with any LMS. Grade pass back does not work with Google Classroom or Skyward (unsure about Power School or others) SSO works with Clever, but not Google, so students always have to go through Clever and cannot go directly from Google Classroom to an assignment, even if you posted to Google Classroom through the Connect portal. Problem sets are robust, but difficult to edit and assessments are designed to be web based. Formatting is poor when trying to print assessments that were created online.
I think any computational based math class will greatly benefit from [alta from Knewton, a Wiley brand]. It simplifies the professor's work in terms of grading while also increasing the student's ability to get real time help on homework problems if they are struggling. I like that the questions are at a deep level and not all multiple choice. If a student gets a problem wrong they get a growth mindset message of encouragement.
Integration with Canvas is seamless and easy to use.
Assignment completion, for students, is straightforward and easy to use.
The SmartBook allows students to read as they are tested with questions and this helps them learn the material easily without having first trying to read, memorize a chapter and then answer questions.
McGraw-Hill Connect could do a better job of staying current and making sure all of its videos and references to real-scenarios are up to date.
It can do a better job of immediate explanation or advice when an answer is incorrect.
It can improve upon its ability to autosave assignments. If an internet connection gets buggy and kicks the user out of the system, sometimes the assignment progress will be lost. This is because to save the assignment, it takes you out of the assignment and doesn't just autosave.
The product will do a majority of what they claim. Your experience will vary depending on how much you love or hate the implementation. The tools are there, but there is a learning curve as people get accommodated to how interaction is expected to be conducted (as opposed to more personal means).
Personally, I did not encounter McGraw-Hill support. However, I worked with colleagues who needed support and were able to receive in a timely manner. Overall, McGraw Hill Connect is user-friendly (at least from teacher interface) and easy to navigate, which minimizes the need to reach out for support. The help button is useful and provides plenty of immediate support.
Much of our lecture material comes from McGraw-Hill, so it was an opportunity to marry the learning material to a collaborative system that can make the experience more portable and potentially more affordable for our students. The workings are managed off-site so we do not need to care for it on a daily basis.
Compared to competitors, the Knewton system is much more adaptive and designed for mastery and learning rather than assessment. If those are your goals, then this is a good system to use. The complexity of the problems is generally lacking, so you will need to supplement with more difficult problems for your students to tackle, whereas many other systems have these more difficult problems built-in.
Wasted valuable time trying to figure out the "eBook."
Did not receive good value for the money spent.
Did not feel as though the company was interested in keeping me satisfied as a customer, or like their customer service was actually interested in solving any problems.
